For the remainder of the year, my San Jose and Peninsula theater reviews will be posted on Talkin’ Broadway with only introductions to those reviews on this site. Please continue to https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj301.html  for full review.

In the world of stories, change of scenery usually triggers more profound change.  Perhaps this feature motivates the driving trip as a recurring genre in live performance and film.  All variety of life altering events can occur en route, from car chase to car accident and from wedding to murder.  But in the more placid trips like TheatreWorks’ A Driving Beat, the welcomed reward is seeing characters grow.

In a world premiere three-hander, playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett explores a new dimension on this theme with great sensitivity and a highly entertaining outcome.  On the surface, Diane is a middle-aged, white-bread, elementary school teacher from Ohio.  One summer, she takes her soon-to-be 15-year-old son Mateo on a driving trip to San Diego.  However, the notion of this being a slice of traditional American life ends there.  The fact that the action is punctuated with hip-hop song and dance diversions by Mateo in English and Spanish in which he shares inner thoughts should provide a clue.

Lee Ann Payne as Diane beautifully portrays the earnest and caring mother of an adopted boy.  Her blend of tight and loose rules mixed with love have produced a warm relationship with Mateo.  Diane light-heartedly refers to this trip as his quinceañero, which Mateo bristles at because quinceañeras, celebrating the 15^th birthday, are for girls, and there is no male equivalent.

A bright, ebullient, and sensitive Mateo is portrayed by a smiling and visually expressive Jon Viktor Corpuz as a teen who loves Diane but is intimidated by much of what surrounds him.  Mateo was born in San Diego and identified as Latino of unspecified origin.  The purpose of the trip is the hope to find his roots……

A Driving Beat, a world premiere written by Jordan Ramirez Butler, is produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and plays at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA through November 23, 2025.